Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On the Indian Ocean, on the pier of Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, under the strict protection of a group of British soldiers, two British nobles watched the Dutch fleet carrying the King of the Netherlands disappear and started talking.

"His Majesty William IV of the Netherlands seems to have gained a lot from his trip to the Far East."

"Earl Elgin seems very unhappy."

"Isn't Earl Canning envious too?"

James Bruce, the new British Governor-General of India, looked at each other with Charles Canning, Earl of Canning, who was a little afraid of each other.

"Earl Canning, you are so humble. You were elected as a member of the House of Commons in 1836. In 1837, you inherited the title of Viscount Canning from your deceased mother. In 1841, you joined Robert Peel's cabinet and became the Chief Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 1846, he served as Director of the British Timber and Forestry Service. From 1853 to 1855, he served as Postmaster General in the cabinet of the Earl of Aberdeen. In 1856, he was unexpectedly appointed Governor-General of India in the Whig government of Lord Palmerston. , succeeded the Earl of Dalhousie.

And your various actions in India have become the subject of talk among the people in London, claiming that you have made the greatest contribution to establishing Britain's hegemony in the Far East Indian Ocean.

Like your father, Prime Minister Canning, he is one of the greatest father-son partnerships in British politics."

As he talked, James Bruce, Earl of Elgin, became a little envious of each other.

As soon as the other party was appointed Governor-General of India in 1856 and took over, he immediately sent an expeditionary force to the Persian Gulf to oppose the Persian Gulf king's occupation of Herat, the British protectorate in Afghanistan.

After the expeditionary force drove away the Persian army, it won the friendship of the Afghan rulers.

A treaty was concluded in 1857 to consolidate relations.

In the same year, the Indian Mutiny, in which Bengali soldiers were dissatisfied with British rule, developed into a large-scale rebellion against British rule in northern India. Canning quickly adjusted his troops, including intercepting the troops sent to the big country in the Far East for the Second Crow War. Strongholds held by the rebels were retaken.

After the mutiny was quelled, Canning insisted on treating the rebels with caution, fairness, calmness, and patience and reason, convincing the Indians to believe in his mother's side rather than revenge, so that a crisis was quickly and peacefully resolved.

After London learned this lesson, India began to change its management strategy, shifting from the Oriental India Company to being directly ruled by the Queen of England. Canning presided over the management reorganization of India. After the reorganization was successful, he was promoted from viscount to earl in 1859. .

It can be said that Earl Elgin is afraid of the other party for three reasons. One is his qualifications and ability;

The second is that the other party has been operating in India for many years. Now that he takes over, he is afraid of causing dissatisfaction to the other party and deliberately leaves behind to punish him. Then he will suffer;

The third one is his father, former Prime Minister Canning, who is one of the greatest prime ministers in the history of British Foreign Secretary.

Let's put it this way, Earl Canning is a Conservative Tory, but he is a different kind. Like the Earl of Aberdeen, he is a Tory but does Whig things. He belongs to the Tory party. of moderates.

Therefore, he gained the trust of Viscount Palmerston, the current Prime Minister of the Whig Party, and was appointed Governor-General of India.

The other person's life trajectory is also the reason why he is very afraid.

After becoming an earl in 1859, he acted more boldly, accepting Indians as unofficial members, reorganizing the Indian army, changing the British ratio from 20% to 30%, encouraging road construction, famine relief, and founded Calcutta University, University of Madras and University of Bombay.

This set up a platform for the British government to control the Indian elite in the future.

James Bruce, Earl of Elgin, was higher in title than the latter three years ago. However, as the former governor helped Britain gain huge benefits in India, he was generously rewarded by the Queen in 1859 and promoted from viscount to earl. draw.

Moreover, he is also the former Governor-General of India. Maybe he can go further when he returns to London this time?

The Earl of Canning was equally fearful of the Earl of Elgin.

"Earl Elgin is not bad either."

If Canning made his fortune in India, then Earl Elgin was Britain's rise in Qing affairs in the Far East.

The Earl of Elgin graduated from Oxford University and became the Governor of Jamaica in 1842. He had a high starting point.

In 1846, he served as the British Governor-General in North America (Canada), responsible for implementing the arrangements of Lord Durham and his cabinet ministers.

However, he himself did not deal well with the Tories. In particular, he supported compensation for the British losses during the 1837 riot in Lower Canada, which caused strong opposition from the Tories. However, because of this, he gained huge support in Canada. The rule was consolidated.

Many people later suspected that this was a double act between the British government and him.

In 1854, as the British-mandated leader of Canada, he negotiated a reciprocity treaty between the Canadian colonies and the United States.

In 1857, he served as the British plenipotentiary representative to the Qing Dynasty and led a navy and army to the Far East. In December, he commanded the British and French coalition forces to attack the southern part of the Qing Dynasty. In May of the following year, he led the British and French coalition forces northward, bombarded the entrance to the Qing Dynasty, and coerced the Qing Dynasty into signing a treaty. unequal treaties.

After that, he visited Japan as a representative of the United Kingdom. From 1859 to 1860, he served as Postmaster General, assuming this position three years later than Earl Canning.

However, in order to further pay the Qing court, London sent Earl Elgin to return to the Qing Dynasty as minister in February 1860. He led the British army, together with France, to seize all the Qing national treasures in Yuanmingyuan. Divide the spoils with France.

In the end, some were given to the Queen, some were auctioned, and some were transferred to museums across Europe.

I didn’t even forget that before I left, I burned it for three days, reducing the largest “museum” in the Qing Dynasty to ashes.

Finally, they forced the Qing royal family to sign the unequal treaty "Capital Treaty".

Because of this, Earl Elgin aroused great hatred in the Qing Dynasty.

In order to protect him, the cabinet of Queen Victoria in London and the Whig Viscount Palmerston chose Earl Elgin as the new Governor-General of India after Earl Canning was transferred back to London. A Governor-General of India.

The two men are of the Mesozoic generation in British politics. They were both born after 1810. They are in their early 50s this year and have become partners with Disraeli and Creston.

Therefore, in India and the Far East in the direction of the Qing Dynasty, they are working hard to add points to the two parties in the London political arena. Of course, personal interests also come first.

"The Netherlands has been developing too fast recently. I originally thought the Queen would send me to Australia to be the Governor-General, but now I am the Governor-General of India."

Earl Elgin smiled bitterly and said: "Earl Canning knows the situation here better than I do. The Netherlands has taken away Australia, which has left us, the governors of overseas colonies, with even fewer places to choose to work."

"Not bad. In terms of overseas colonies, in terms of gold content, the five governors-general, the Governor-General of Canada, the Governor-General of South Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, the Governor-General of Australia, the Governor-General of India, and the Governor-General of Egypt, are the most valuable, followed by the Governor-General of New Zealand and the Governor-General of Jamaica. The place.

Now that Australia is missing, the road for us overseas colonial officials suddenly becomes even narrower," Earl Canning sighed.

Earl Elgin: "Earl Canning returned to London and heard that he is about to be promoted. Please support the development of India in the future."

Earl Canning: "Of course, let's go, I will explain to you the attitude of the states in the Indian affiliated alliance towards London."

On the Rotterdam, William IV had a gloomy look.

Canning didn't know much about Canning in his previous life, but he was very familiar with James Bruce, Earl of Elgin, because in later generations, he was also called Elgin and the leader of the two bandits who invaded Yuanmingyuan.

"This person's reputation in Europe is not good, and their family is even called a robber family. In 1801, the seventh Earl of Elgin obtained the Greek Parthenon statue from the Ottoman Turkey, which ruled Greece, and transported it back to the UK. , causing dissatisfaction among the Greeks.

But the current eighth Earl of Elgin, James Bruce, carried out armed robbery in Yuanmingyuan, removed the national treasure of the garden and set it on fire.

This is very rare in the history of world civilization. The great French writer Hugo even wrote angrily about this: "We are so-called civilized people, but we think the Chinese are barbarians. This involves the good deeds that civilized people have done to barbarians."

Even many British people ridiculed that the title of Earl of Elgin has become a symbol of equality between robbers, and the superior is better than the inferior.

I think this always sanctimonious Earl family is too barbaric. If the first generation of Elgin Byron was still alive, he might have made a more severe moral criticism of them, and it was even possible to directly expel the father and son from the family. ’”

"Your Majesty, I heard that just now on the Colombo dock, the Earl of Elgin revealed his dissatisfaction with our capture of Australia. It is obvious that this person will carry out unfavorable policies towards the Netherlands. As a Whig, he is now a backbone of the party. The impact on the future of our Netherlands may gradually become larger, so we have to guard against it.”

McKay Jon then said:

“Earl Canning is a much more pragmatic person, but he belongs to the Tory Party. The new leader of the Tory Party, Disraeli, is dissatisfied with Viscount Palmerston’s current policy of easing payments.

If the Tories come to power, the UK's current policy towards the Netherlands may be subversive and reinvented, which is also a very serious matter for the Netherlands. "

William IV agreed with Mackay Sean's concern, "This is also the reason why I want to win Australia in a hurry. The Netherlands' territory is small, the depth is too shallow, and its ability to withstand the attacks of other powerful countries is too weak. It will not last long." Will fall back.

Australia is different. The first thing here is that the country is large enough and deep enough, and there are no powerful countries anywhere. Even if the Netherlands wants to develop, it will be extremely easy to expand outward.

This is the opposite of that in mainland Europe, where the Netherlands no longer has the direction to expand, the population is not good, and the economy is no worse than ours. Moreover, the Netherlands, a land of four wars, is extremely susceptible to impact, and the economic impact has also become larger. "

“After my great-grandfather ceded Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope to the British, he was able to get British support to restore the country.

The Netherlands can no longer lose Australia, so it must be well defended to prevent it from becoming her wedding dress again. "

After William IV sighed, he said to McKay Sean:

“Tell me about the situation in Greece”

"Your Majesty, we have basically completed the deployment in Greece. The people have been stirred up and the business community has asked King Otto to step down. Should we continue to push for the next step?"

"Since the Greek side has already started," William IV said sternly: "No one can stop the progress of the Netherlands. Greece, we are determined to win, let's get started."